slipping away
by ML.Vanilla
Summary: Post FF6. Gisele has survived, but is suffering mental problems. the family starts to worry about her as things get serious. how are they going to get through to her and convince her in her strong beliefs that she is not good enough? mentions of eating disorders (anorexia/bulimia), depression, trauma...
1. Chapter 1

Han send a very worried email to Mia. Gisele had never been any bigger than skinny for as long as he knew her, but after the events in Londen she had lost weight quickly. And now she wasn't just skinny, no she had become deadly skinny. Han had tried to ask her about it, but she wouldn't tell anything. He couldn't point out what was wrong with her and he didn't understand how she could have gotten in such a dangerous state. She really looked ill to him and that only in the few months after the two of them had left their family in Los Angeles.

Mia read Han's worried words.

'What's wrong?' Bryan asked when he saw his wife's expression.

'Han send me a message. Something's wrong with Gisele.'

'What do you mean, is she sick or something?'

'I don't know, but if we're to believe Han's words, she's not doing good. I'm gonna call him, they should be up by now.'

Bryan checked his watch. It was almost 5 p.m. so it was around 9 a.m. in Tokyo. As Mia stood up, he took a place in front of their computer and started to read Han's mail.

 _Dear Mia,_

 _How are you doing? Everything okay with you, Jack and Bryan?_

 _Tokyo is wonderful, so many great people and it's great to finally live a life. I'm actually writing you because I have something on my mind recently that I can't solve myself and you are one of the few people I would trust with this matter and.. well yeah, let's get this off my chest; I'm worried about Gisele. Seriously worried. I mean, she's scaring me. She is not as easily accepted by the people as I am, probably based on her looks and her accent. As long as we're together things are fine, but if she goes somewhere alone there's always some sort of problem with the locals. The point where she scares me is how she has lost a significant amount of weight recently. She looks like she's ill, but whenever I ask her what's wrong she denies everything. I've started to doubt if she even notices it herself. Also her hair is getting thinner and is falling out, her bones are sticking out (I can feel it when I touch her, but it's also visible), her clothes are getting baggy, her eyes are staring glassy and she's become more deprived and secretive.. some days I barely recognize her anymore.._

 _I am sending you a photo that I took earlier this week without her noticing, along with this message._

 _Please Mia, can you maybe talk to her or something? I'm getting desperate as this all is getting worse every day and I can't get a grip on the situation._

 _Greats, Han._

Mia had opened the photo of course and Han hadn't exaggerated. Gisele did look scarily thin and he was right to ask Mia for help, cause yeah.. Mia was a woman as well.

'Oh God.. Should we inform Dom too?' Bryan asked. 'He knew her first.'

'If Han answers I'll ask him. For now he contacted us and I don't want to start shouting around when he's asking for discretion.' That's exactly why Mia is such a great person, always respecting everyone.

 _Note: I'm a bit of a slow writer due to perfectionism so I can't promise daily updates.. anyway, if you have tips or suggestions please let me know! I've started the second chapter but I'm a bit stuck already_


	2. Chapter 2

_Note: I received a message that I misspelled Brian's name in the first chapter (very true!), but I can't change it in the already uploaded chapter (probably possible somehow, but whatever). anyway, enjoy chapter 2._

'Han? Hi, I just read your email. I hope I'm not disturbing you right now?'

'No, no, that's fine. I'm alone right now. Gisele is out running. I think she'll be back in half an hour or so.'

'Running? How can.. well, I believe you. How long is all this been going on? We haven't seen each other in about six months or so.'

'I started noticing two months ago, but it's probably been going on for longer. I don't understand what's happening and she won't talk to me, no matter whether I ask her or I start guessing things. She keeps saying "it's not you, it's just me" and that she's fine. But you've seen the picture I send you. Please tell me you agree with me that's she's not fine!' Han sounded frustrated, desperate.

'You were very right to contact me, Han, really. That's why I'm calling you. Do you she'd talk to me or Dom?'

'I don't know anymore, I can only hope. It feels like I'm losing her right in front of me again, only this time it goes slowly and..'

Somewhere behind Han was the sound of probably their front door opening. Han kept the line active.

'Hi, you're back early. Everything alright?' So it was Gisele.

'They threw me out of the gym,' she said in a very monotone voice.. 'Other than that I'm fine, thanks. Who were you calling?'

'It's Mia. She just asked about you.'

Shit, Mia thought, if she was to speak to her already she didn't know what she could say and what not. Like whether she could refer to Han's message or not. But she had to improvise as Han apparently handed her the phone.

'Hi chicka, how's life in LA again? everything still like it was before?'

'No, it's so much better. Now with Brian and Jack, not having to worry about the FBI asking me daily if I've heard from Dom.. oh I've actually just heard from him and he and Letty want to celebrate Christmas over here. I thought you and Han might want to come too?' Mia hoped she could use this as a reason for why she had called in the first place.

'That sounds great! As far as I know we don't have any plans yet. wait a second, I'll put it on speaker,' Gisele said.

Han had sort of hoped for an occasion like the one Mia had just came up with. He needed a reason to get his girlfriend surrounded by their family, because whatever was going on with her, he was not able to match up to it on his own. they agreed to coming over a week before Christmas Eve. then Gisele went for a shower and left Han again with the conversation.

'Thank you so much Mia,' he said when Gisele was out of hearing range.

'No problem of course. Do you want me to tell Dom what's going on? I mean.. if he only finds out in a week he might react too impulsive to be helpful I think. Brian just saw the photo you send and he had to take a second to catch up as well.'

'Will you do that? You know, I'm considering asking Tej to hack into her medical records, see if there's something there that might explain what's going on. But that also feels so wrong.. I don't want to invade her privacy..'

'I don't know, that sounds a bit violating indeed, but from your point of view I can understand. Do you think you can wait with that kind of things for a week until you both are here? I mean, do you think she'll stay out of the danger zone for that long?' Mia wanted to be carefull. She had no idea how Gisele would react if she was confronted and she definitely did not want her to run away.


	3. Chapter 3

'Yo Dom,' Brian said, 'Han and Gisele are coming over next week.'  
'Are you and Mia planning a family-reunion for Christmas?' Dom smiled.  
'Almost, Tej and Roman already have plans with old friends. I could ask Hobbs if you like.' Brian had to laugh about his own joke even before Dom would. 'Hey listen, there's something you need to know. Mia spoke with Han yesterday and uh.. well, Gisele is not doing too well. We don't really know what's going on, but Han's very worried and Gisele denies something's wrong.'  
only after seeing the picture from the email both Letty and Dom kind of understood the cryptic description that was given to them.  
'Has she lost her mind or something?' Letty said when the picture was shown to her. 'How can she not see _that_ herself?'  
'The fact that she doesn't probably means that we have to be carefull on how we are going to try make her see and admit that something's wrong,' Mia tried to convince the others that they shouldn't just tell her to eat fries and burgers on the airport already. 'Just based on how she looks and that she denies she has a problem, she might have an eating disorder. Now I'm not a specialist in that either, but I do know that those kind of things won't make it easier for her in any way. If that's not the problem, then I have really no idea. But guys, please, be a little carefull when they're here. we have no idea how she'll react in case it comes to really confronting her, okay?'

The flight would take a little over 10 hours from Tokyo to LA. Brian and Dom were going to take Jack on a mens day so Mia and Letty were picking Han and Gisele up from the airport.  
The past week Gisele had been stressed all the time. How could she be going there? How was she going to get away with her habits? How was she going to convince everyone she was just fine? She knew Han didn't believe her and the fact that they were going to America again was probably because of the recent contact he and Mia had. She felt guilty towards him. Guilty because she was unable to speak about what was going on in her head. Well, half of the time she didn't know that herself either, but people just couldn't know. They could not find out how weak she really was, that she was not able to stop. not before she had reached a certain point, which she definitely had not. yet.  
'Do you have any aspirin with you? This stupid headache won't go over.'  
'No, sorry. Didn't you already have four of those in the past two hours?' Han asked.  
'They're not working. It doesn't even get any less.'  
Gisele was not the kind of person that would use painkilers as far as Han knew. Even during her recovery after the whole drama with the plane in London she had barely used any. she had endured so much physical pain when her skin had to grow back and some of her bones had to grow back together. she had headaches then too from the concussion, so Han didn't understand why she was asking for them now.  
'You're pale today, you know. Maybe your concussion wasn't really over yet?' _or maybe you're depriving too much energy from your brain baby.. or both?_ but he knew that would not agree to having anything during the flight, that was only going to take four more hours.  
She put her hand in his. 'I'm sorry,' she whispered.  
Han put a kiss on his side of her forehead. 'Don't be.'  
She closed her eyes and let her head lie on his shoulder. After a few minutes Han was pretty conviced she had fallen asleep. with her hand in his he could feel her heart beat. it was slow, but it was there. Han focussed on that untill the plane landed.


	4. Chapter 4

NOTE: yay chapter 4 is up. I can't believe how such a small amount of words can take so much time and energy to come together! anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Mia and Letty had to wait 30 minutes longer due to heavy weather before the plane from Tokyo could land.  
'We used to pick your brother up about twice a month here,' Mia said. 'He had work in Germany and his wife and family stayed here so he came back as often as his salary allowed him to. They live there now as far as I know. Last time we saw them they had two little children, but that is probably five years ago,' Mia said.  
'Maybe if I'll ever remember him I'll try and meet them. Until then, I don't see why I should.'  
'So far nothing has helped to get some memories back huh.'  
'Nope. But somehow I feel like it will come. Sometime.'  
Mia smiled. It would be so nice to have all of her friend, her _sister_ , back. Of course she was very thankful that they had her back the way things were now, but she did not want to have all those memories alone.  
But now they had other concerns. Han and Gisele came in sight, both of them smiling as soon as they saw Letty and Mia.  
Letty would focus on Han and have a conversation with him that should make it look like she would immediately be distracted and sort of 'forget' to welcome Gisele. Not because she didn't like her or anything, but it was just not in Letty's personality to react properly to the current situation with her. So the three of them had discussed the day before how they were going to do it.  
It felt really weird to act a scene instead of just be themselves and improvise like any other would do.  
Mia hugged Gisele. Both of them wearing a coat, so everything seemed fine in that perspective. Though it was so clear on Gisele's pale and sunken face, her bone tight hands and small but baggy jeans that she had become severely underweight.. Of course she smiled, but Mia seriously wondered if it was as forced as the way they tried to make everything seem normal.  
Han carried a sports bag, Gisele had an army backpack and a small handbag with her. Was that just a personal choice or because she simply did not have the strength in her arms to carry a bag the way Han did?  
'Well, the plane may have saved you from the rain so far, but the parking lot doesn't have a roof,' Letty said, teasing the others.

'Hay,' Dom said as Letty walked in, the other three having a quick chat with the neighbours. He put his arm around her while Brian walked in the room with little Jack on his shoulders.  
'She's even worse than how Han described her. I'm seriously surprised if she's able to walk up to the front door,' Letty said. This was clearly not her area.  
Then Han entered, shaking Dom a hand and turned to Brian who was saying 'looks who's there!' in a funny voice to Jack. Everyone liked Jack, Han had looked forward to meet him again, see that face that had no worries over it, that little innocent smile.  
Mia and Gisele walked in just a minute later, proving Letty wrong. Dom walked over to Gisele. She put her backpack on the Floor and smiled up to fim.  
'I know I called you _small one_ before, but I never meant it this litterally,' he said before somehow carefully hugging her. That was unintentional, but she looked so vulnerable that it just happened automatically. 'I'm sorry, we were going to wait with this, but I can't.'


End file.
